A Complete Damped Harmonic Oscillator Using an Arduino and an Excel Spreadsheet

The recent works of oscillators are mainly focused on underdamped oscillation. Therefore, the writer proposes an experimental apparatus to demonstrate all types of damped harmonic oscillation. The apparatus utilizes an Arduino for data acquisition and an Excel spreadsheet for data analysis. By using this apparatus, the type of damped harmonic oscillation can be determined, the equation of motion can be achieved, and the motion can be visualized in a graph on an Excel spreadsheet. The quality of fitted data is very good with R[superscript 2] being close to 1 for every type of motion. The flexibility of customization and automation make this media provide real-time visualization and become more practical to be applied in a class.